MOSCOW (AP)--Top North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russian officials
Tuesday praised the spirit of co-operation between Moscow and the western
alliance as the newly formed NATO-Russia Council met for the first time in the
Russian capital.

"We have achieved important practical results," NATO Secretary
General Lord Robertson said in his opening address to the council. "NATO
members have benefited from the experience of our Russian colleagues."

Along with the mutual praise, however, Russian officials reaffirmed Moscow's
long-standing concerns about the possible deployment of NATO forces in new NATO
members states including former Soviet republics on its borders and said the
issue could damage arms control efforts.

Russia has criticized NATO members for failing to ratify the modified
Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, which limits the numbers of warplanes,
tanks and other heavy non-nuclear weapons in Europe. The breakup of the Soviet
Union and Yugoslavia and the subsequent spread of regional conflicts prompted
the drafting of an amended version of the 1990 treaty, which was signed in
Istanbul in November 1999.

Russia has also insisted new NATO members join the CFE treaty to prevent a
military buildup near its borders.

"We are concerned about the deceleration of the introduction of the
adapted version of the CFE treaty and discussions of limitations on military
deployment on the territories of new NATO members," Foreign Minister Igor
Ivanov told the joint council Tuesday.

"If we fail to reach agreement...a dangerous gap may emerge between new
geopolitical and military realities and the existing system of international
arms control."

Robertson later told a news conference that prospective new alliance members
had pledged to sign up to the treaty once it's open for signing.

A senior U.S. diplomat sought to downplay the differences over the treaty,
but said Russia has yet to fulfill its own obligations on troop withdrawals from
the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova.

Still, the mood at the council meeting was overwhelmingly positive, and
Ivanov said the new Russia-NATO relationship was "becoming one of the
pillars of the international security system."

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said NATO-Russian co-operation on
theater missile defense and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction was
intensifying, and said NATO's promise to help Russia eliminate its stockpiles of
anti-personnel mines opened up a new prospective field for joint work.

NATO and Russia set up the joint council last May to make decisions on
counterterrorism, nonproliferation, missile defense, peacekeeping,
search-and-rescue at sea and other issues.

Closer ties have helped soothe Russia's concerns about the alliance's
expansion, which had previously caused fervent Kremlin protests. Russia's muted
reaction to NATO's decision last fall to invite seven nations, including the
three former Soviet republics in the Baltics, to join contrasted sharply with
vociferous protests against the first wave of NATO expansion in 1999.